It's lunchtime on a weekday in a busy neighbourhood of Washington DC. Isaac Stein should be at his day job as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service, but instead, he is making hot dogs.
"I started this in September. It was intended as a weekend project. It was, for several weeks. And then I was furloughed," he said.
Now instead of heading to the office, Mr Stein dons a suit and mans his hot dog stall.
One afternoon this week, he was greeting regular customers, taking photos and nodding at motorists who were driving past and honking their horns.
It's a novelty for a region where hundreds of thousands of workers have been without pay for the past month.
"I feel really supported by the community here, I really love being here," Mr Stein said.
"I've had my coworkers come, I've had other federal furloughed employees come, and the response is generally that they're just happy there's someone out doing what they like doing."
The government shutdown is the result of a complex political stoush between the opposition Democratic Party, and Donald Trump's governing Republicans. More on that later.
Practically, the stalemate means almost everyone who works for the federal government is no longer being paid.
So far, it has lasted just over a month — the second-longest on record.
Museums around DC are shut. National parks around the nation are not being maintained. Federally-run services — things like air-traffic control, mail delivery and the like — are either shut down or being staffed by workers who won't be paid until the government reopens.
Military salaries are being propped up by private donors.
Perhaps most drastically, the Department of Agriculture says it's run out of money to pay monthly grocery stipends under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, or SNAP.
About 42 million Americans rely on the scheme to buy food. Their payments should have landed this weekend.
On Friday, local time, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, saying the suspension of the payments would be unlawful.
Despite that ruling, it remains unclear if the department will distribute SNAP funds.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday night, local time, Mr Trump said government lawyers did not think the payments could be made legally and had asked the court to clarify its ruling about how to fund SNAP.
He again blamed Democrats for the delay.
'Go nuclear', Trump urges
Mr Trump is a pivotal voice in the shutdown debate. Many Democrats worry a deal struck with Republicans won't mean much if the president hasn't agreed as well.
In a Truth Social post this week, he called the Democrats "stone cold crazy" and urged Republican congressional leadership to take the "nuclear option": eliminating the filibuster.
This is a measure that requires 60 votes in the Senate to advance legislation. It's why the Republicans, with their 53 seats, can't pass their government funding legislation even though they have a majority in the upper chamber of US politics.
Cancelling the filibuster has been threatened over the years, but neither party has moved on it.
Both sides know that if they clear the path, they'll have less chance to stop legislation from their opponents next time they're back in the minority.
The Republican Senate leader John Thune has opposed scrapping the filibuster.
After the president's post, Mr Thune's office said his position had not changed.
Mr Trump urged the weakening of the filibuster in his first term too, but the then-Senate leader Mitch McConnell consistently refused.
As well as the threat of basic food aid disappearing, Americans who have health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) are facing sharply increased premiums.
This is the time of year when people can either sign up to or change their ACA health insurance.
But the cost is going up substantially because tax credits, which helped people afford their insurance, are expiring.
That's at the centre of Democrats' refusal to pass the Republican spending bill.
Democrats insist any new funding needs to extend those tax credits. Republicans say they're willing to negotiate, but not until the Democrats agree to re-open the government.
Some analysts are predicting the uncertainty surrounding SNAP funding and pricing for health insurance discussions — both of which are coming to a head this weekend — could increase pressure on lawmakers to find a breakthrough.
The Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the chamber in recess since September, refusing to return until the Senate passes a funding bill.
Some Republican members are reportedly becoming uncomfortable with the long break.
Mr Stein is also looking forward to returning to his office, whenever he's allowed to.
"As soon as I'm called in to work, I'm going to be going in at the first available opportunity," he said at his hot dog stand this week.
"I very much look forward to getting back to my office job and continuing this as the weekend project it was intended to be."
